During public events, such as a sports competition, presentation, or the like, persons at the event typically record some or all of the event, such as with a video recorder, camera, audio recorder, or the like. Frequently there are professional recorders in addition to amateur recorders that may also be present at the event. For example, at a sporting event, there are frequently freelance photographers at the side-lines recording the event and parties attending the event (e.g., crowd shots or the like).
A person at the event, or participating in the event, may find it desirable to purchase a copy of a professional's recording of the event. For example, the person may be part of the event, or may have forgotten to bring a recorder, e.g., a camera, or the person's recording equipment may be low quality. Or, the person may be interested in obtaining pictures of her or himself at the event, an option not typically available unless a companion uses the person's recorder to take a picture.
One existing solution allowing a person in a photograph to locate photographs likely including the person is provided by ImageID Ltd. Of New York, N.Y., which provides technology in which one wears an identification badge that is recorded along with the recording of an event. (See www-vividot-com; please note that to prevent inadvertent hyperlinks, the periods in the preceding uniform resource locator (URL) were replaced with hyphens.) For example, if a picture is taken of a person, the person's badge is pictured, and a computer system can scan the picture to identify all badges that are in the picture.
A significant limitation to this arrangement, however, is that a person's identification badge must be adequately captured in a recording to enable the person to later search for pictures containing the person. Thus, a crowd shot would have insufficient detail to allow later identifying the person's identification badge. Another significant limitation is that the person cannot obtain recordings in which the person does not appear. For example, the person cannot locate a professional recording taken from a position adjacent the person, or directed away from the person.